Over the weekend, Saturn got as close to the Earth as it will get this year—but it's still 1.3 billion kilometers away. But what if Saturn somehow left its orbit and paid us a very close visit? It would look pretty stunning before it destroyed our home planet.

So, technically, this is what it would look like if the Moon were a disco ball AND orbited Earth at …
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Improbable as this event is, it's fascinating to see Saturn and its moons at different distances. Over at Bad Astronomy, Phil Plait notes that if Saturn were as far away from the Earth as Mars is, it would be about as bright as the full moon, with planets disk appearing to be roughly one-quarter the size of the moon and its rings appearing to be two-thirds the moon's size. Visually, the video deliberately ignores the effect of Saturn's gravity on the Earth; as breathtaking as the sight is, things on Earth itself wouldn't look so pretty.